The perceptions of Chinese privilege and meritocracy in Singaporean Chinese : re-examining the myth of meritocracy and the hidden discourse about racial barriers and privileges in Singapore

Author

Ng, James Kok Boon

Date of Issue

2017

School

College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to delve deeper into the recent conversations that put the issue of ‘Chinese privilege’ at the forefront of the racial discourse in Singapore. By utilizing class-based concepts, this paper is able to show the intrinsic relationships between the emergence of the ‘Chinese Elites’ in Singapore, as well as to the hidden discourse about how racial privileges reproduce itself through the ideology of meritocracy purported by the dominant ‘Sino-centric’ political party, the People’s Action Party (PAP). How do people at different spectrum of the ‘privileged’ group react to and perceive such privileges? Through a thorough investigation by documenting verbal accounts of socialized ethnic Chinese Singaporeans, this research seeks to unveil the beginnings, and the perpetuation of the ‘Chinese privilege’ phenomenon in Singapore.